Since there is some misinformation on this site regarding ease of comps at certain Boyd properties, I thought I'd run down what I know. I am not a Boyd expert, a Main Street Station expert, or anything like that. I have, however, used Boyd as a core element for comped rooms in Las Vegas and have routinely stayed at Boyd properties for six to 20 comped nights a year going back decades.
I recommend Jean Scott's old blog entries at LVA, especially during the changeover to the new comp system that came about at Boyd in 2018. She kept tabs on the comp ebb and flows. Also, another forum site has a large Boyd comp thread that chronicles the evolution of the system and people's attempts to cope with it. Anyone can PM me for that site address.
In 2018, Boyd, after a series of comp adjustments both good and bad (mostly bad, of course) eventually just tightened the whole thing up and tried to structure it more like CET's programs. In other words, the little guy got substantially less, and the bigger players got slightly less. Scott chronicles her attempts to figure out the system in a series of 2018 entries.
Anyway, the basic problem is that you need to arrive at 750 tier credits these days to accumulate points, and points are what you spend for food and other stuff. Until you get to 750 tier credit status, you don't get points. You'll get some marginal offers, but you won't accumulate points. The additional issue here is that the formula for how much play earns how many tier credits can't be discerned at most BConnected desks. So if you sit and play two hours of video poker on a Tuesday "Young at Heart" day so as to get a comped buffet by earning five tier credits, there is no guarantee that the two hours of quarter vp will get the job done. If you sit and run $20 through Da Vinci Diamonds once, though, you'll probably get your five tier credits and your buffet.
Basically, they've frozen vp out of the comp system as best they can. If you do any kind of math for vp, it takes an awesome amount to get you to Sapphire, at which time you begin accumulating points. If you go to Main Street Station, some of the better-paying vp, including deuces wild to the left of the south entrance, has little tags on them announcing that they accrue points at half or none of the regular rate. Now that refers to points. I have no idea what the tier credit accrual is, if any.
This is one very good reason why I find it a little silly for ostensible vp experts to be advertising for the Boyd comp system. Boyd really does not want your action.
Next, for practical purposes, it's been my experience that the downtown properties kind of operate as one component and the Orleans/GC operate somewhat separately. Downtown is Cal, MSS, and Fremont. Availability downtown of comp rooms is no measure of availability of off-strip rooms is what I'm saying.
Boyd routinely allows food to be bought via points at a 40% discount, sometimes more. That's my primary use of points. I had about 200,000 points stashed, but have worked it down to about 60,000 ($97 in food, to be precise) and will blow that at coffee shops next trip. I won't even attempt to play vp to get free buffets and such; I'll just plop down at some stupid slot machine and run a few bucks through. That's what they want me to do, and I'll accommodate them. But they've lost any video poker play from me in the process.
My best guess is that if you run 3K or 4K through downtown as an out-of-towner, you'll probably get some two-nights-free-every-three months offers with a small food credit and small free play, and maybe better initially if you haven't played there before. But I would recommend checking Scott's blog and the other site's Boyd thread for better information that what I'm presenting here. The system can be baffling. I know someone who pumped through 11K on penny slots in a day, and their very basic offers did not noticeably change.
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